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By Ira Karen Apanay Senior
Reporter
THE Department of Agriculture
(DA) has set a new production target for fisheries in 2008, or more
than five million metric tons (MT) which is a 10-percent hike from
the 2007 production.
In a report to Secretary Arthur
Yap, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director
Malcolm Sarmiento said that of the 5.339-million MT target for this
year, 2.701 million MT will come from the aquaculture sector, 1.157
million MT from commercial fisheries, and 1.48 million MT more from
municipal fishing.
Last year’s production for
fisheries was 4.85 million MT.
Because of this, Yap said the
department expects the fisheries sector to continue being the
primary growth driver for Philippine agriculture this year. He
explained that the fisheries sector was consistently the biggest
gainer in terms of growth so far in the first three quarters of
2007, registering an impressive 7.92-percent increase in the July to
September period alone.
Fourth-quarter production for
2007 is estimated to reach 1.428 million MT.
Yap further said that the Food
and Agriculture Organization ranked the Philippines eighth among the
top fish-producing countries in the world. The country’s previous
ranking was 11th.
Tuna still leads
fish exports
Tuna remains the country’s top
fishery export shipped to many parts of the world including the US,
Japan, China and the European Union.
The Agriculture department is
sending a BFAR-led team to negotiate and renew an agreement in
Jakarta that will grant Philippine fishing vessels continued access
to Indonesia ’s rich fishing grounds to help fuel the growth of
the fisheries sector this year.
The team, headed by Sarmiento,
hopes to renew a fishing arrangement that has enabled Filipino
vessels to fish for tuna in the 200-mile Indonesian Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ).
Sarmiento said Philippine fishing
vessels are allowed access to certain portions of Indonesia’s EEZ
provided that Jakarta gets a share of the fish catch in these
waters.
Yap also said the country is
currently the world’s second largest producer of seaweeds, with
production reaching 1.39 million MT or 11.6 percent of the total
world production of 12 million MT.
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